Posted October 29 2026
By Alasdair Spinner
The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) report “State of Emergency: Australia’s Ageing Population 2026” has been published.
ACEM publishes a “State of Emergency” report every couple of years or so. Previous ones included a focus on NZ emergency medicine and one which covered rural and remote emergency health care in Australia back in 2024.
This new report on the ageing population has been written “to understand the complex factors and interconnected issues that are straining the Aussie healthcare system and causing harm to patients and healthcare workers who treat them.”
Whilst it focuses on ageing population the report also provides an excellent snapshot on statistics in emergency medicine in Australia which will interest those interested in working in this exciting and under-pressure medical specialty.
In 2023–2024 there were 8,924,378 presentations of all age groups recorded in 293 public EDs.
Since 2018–2019 this represented increases in:
All age groups (8,924,378) +6.9%
Older people (2,196,705) +16.3%
Younger people (6,727,673) +4.1%
In 2024, whilst older Aussies made up only 17% of the population, they made up almost 25% of all ED presentations.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics model of Australian population growth between 2010 and 2050 means there would be a 177% increase in total ED presentations, with increases of 242% for people aged 65–84 and a massive 411% increase for people aged 85 or over.
In Australia, everyone presenting to an ED is triaged using the Australasian Triage Scale (ATS). In 2023–2024 almost 60% of people were classed in higher-urgency ATS 1–3, marking an increase of 868,818 higher-urgency presentations since 2018–2019.
2023–2024 Triage category 1–3 percentage of presentations:
All age groups (5,246,332) 58.8%
Older people (1,511,903) 68.8%
Younger people (3,734,489) 55.5%
Hospital admissions 2023–2024 % of total presentations:
All age groups (2,673,331) 30%
Older people (1,117,810) 50.9%
Younger people (1,555,521) 23.1%
The strain on EDs is getting a lot of press at the moment and state governments are under political pressure in Australia because of these negative headlines. Access block seems to be the most pressing safety issue EDs have to deal with, with increasing incidents of violence and aggression faced by the ED workforce. Increasing demand, along with the complexities of urgent care needs, places further demands on doctors and nurses working in Aussie EDs.
Workforce
Despite all these pressures, the workforce situation for emergency medicine specialists in Australia is actually pretty good at the moment. Good for many EDs but not great news for a recruiter as the demand for overseas-trained EM specialists (SIMG) having slowed right down in the last 12 months. However, this is cyclical; we saw a similar slowdown in 2017 before it then picked up again 18 months later.
The number of FACEMs working in EDs has increased over time although in 2025, 35% of ACEM-accredited EDs had vacant posts and 27% of these same posts had been vacant for more than 6 months. Critical shortages remain in regional and remote EDs as well as in leadership roles. A very interesting factoid found in the ACEM Membership and Trainee Demographics and Workforce 2025 report is that there are 600+ hospitals with EDs or emergency services in Australia but only approximately 33% are staffed by FACEMs.
Many hospitals have very good financial incentives in place to attract FACEMs or SIMGs to regional hospitals. Further, remuneration packages in Australia are progressive — that is, increases are baked in every year, negotiated in 3- or 4-year cycles. For example, NSW, ACT and VIC will be announcing new wage agreements for their medical specialists at the end of this year or early next year.
If you have any questions about remuneration levels or about working in Australia please get in touch!
Sources:
ACEM State of Emergency Australia October 2026.
ACEM Membership and Trainee Demographics and Workforce 2025.